After Equifax breach, here’s your next worry: weak PINs

When Helene Muller-Landau first heard the news about the Equifax security breach, she set about freezing her credit files and those of her husband and mother. Very quickly, however, Ms. Muller-Landau, a Smithsonian research scientist, noticed something strange: The personal identification numbers that Equifax was assigning her family members (to use for eventually lifting the freezes) were awfully similar.

At first, she thought it was a mistake. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she was in Panama, or that her web browsers were acting up. But no: The Equifax PINs are based on the date and time that you set up your freeze.